Fresh off a run on America's Got Talent that earned them standing ovations, Columbus duo Bird and Byron are coming home this Friday to throw a free community jubilee for the city that cheered them on. The inaugural Steadyrock Community Jubilee kicks off at 7 p.m. and is expected to pack in local musicians and community organizations alongside the pair's own set.
A Hometown Thank-You After a Breakout AGT Run
According to The Columbus Dispatch, Bird and Byron will host the free jubilee, and the duo has credited the Columbus community for backing them during their run on the NBC talent competition. The band's own tour listing describes the event as presented by Experience Columbus, calling it a special Columbus Superjam featuring local guest musicians, with attendees able to discover community organizations making a difference, per the band's tour page. That same listing places the show at 424 W. Town St.
The jubilee also has a fundraising component: guests can enter a raffle for a drum kit, with proceeds going to the Kids Mental Health Foundation. The evening’s “super jam” pairs the duo’s band, The Steadyrocks, with Columbus musicians and vocalists, while a vintage vendor and community organizations round out the event. Bird and Byron hope the gathering will become an annual hometown tradition, turning a one-night thank-you into a recurring community event. The event details include the raffle beneficiary and the band’s annual ambition.
There's a wrinkle in the venue's name, though. The band's tour page spells it Land Grand Brewing Co., while the Dispatch identifies the spot as Land-Grant Brewing — a discrepancy neither source resolves.
The venue’s history is rooted in a different kind of Columbus homecoming. Land-Grant’s founders, Ohio State graduates Adam Benner and Walt Keys, returned to the city to start a brewery, opening its taproom in 2014 in a former elevator factory in East Franklinton. They describe the location as a place for a community-oriented taproom, making the brewery a fitting backdrop for a jubilee built around local performers and organizations. Land-Grant’s history traces the building’s industrial past and its conversion into the brewery.
Who Are Bird and Byron
The duo is made up of Blake Bergere, who performs as Bird, and Nick Lorenz, known as Byron, according to NBC4. The pair began making music together in 2019, and after relocating to Nashville in 2022, they released several EPs, toured nationally, and built a growing fanbase, the station reports.
That groundwork paid off this year on America's Got Talent, where the duo competed in the show's 21st season, per Billboard. They progressed from earning unanimous approval from all four judges during auditions to reaching the Season 21 quarterfinals, NBC4 notes. The live quarterfinals began Aug. 18 on NBC and streamed the following day on Peacock, according to Billboard.
Bird and Byron went on to perform their original song “I'll Always Be There,” and the band received four yes votes from the judges, advancing to the next round, per NBC4's reporting. They later advanced further into the live shows after performing “By My Side” during the Judges' Callbacks, Billboard reported in August.
The duo’s route to AGT’s live rounds was not direct: they were left out of the first group of 28 acts moving forward, then received another chance when judge Howie Mandel selected them for the show’s new Judges’ Callbacks phase. They went on to compete in the quarterfinals, giving the hometown celebration a longer arc than a simple victory lap after an audition. Coverage of their callback journey describes the detour before their live-show appearance.
More Columbus Dates on the Horizon
Friday's jubilee isn't the only homecoming on the calendar. The duo also announced a hometown show at A&R Music Bar in Columbus set for Dec. 11, according to NBC4, a date also listed on Experience Columbus's event calendar. Bergere has said that if that show sells out fast enough, the band will play at the Newport Music Hall instead, NBC4 reports.
For now, the focus is on Friday night's free gathering — a chance for the AGT standouts to share a stage with the local scene that shaped them before the bright lights of network television ever came calling.
